Consumed By War: European Conflict in the 20th Century. By Richard C. Hall. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. 2010. Pp. ix + 286. Cloth $30.00. ISBN 978-0-8131-2558-9.

摘要

This book by a professor at Georgia Southwestern State University is a compact,nreadable, and informative survey of the dominance of war in twentieth-centurynEurope. Anyone seeking to understand the present-day reluctance of much ofnwestern and central Europe to commit troops to assist in America’swarsinIraqnand Afghanistan need only read this volume.One realizes how deeply and continu-nously Europeans suffered during the last century from armed conflict and its threat.nAccording to Richard Hall, Europe experienced a “LongWar” that ran through-nout nearly the entire twentieth century, comprised of three parts—the BalkanWarsnin 1912 that extended through the end ofWorldWar I, lasted until 1921, and pro-nduced only a brief respite (eighteen years) of peace;WorldWar II, the most intensenphase of the conflict; and the Cold War, which ended with the collapse of Sovietnpower in eastern Europe in 1989 and of the Soviet Union itself two years later.nWhile the Cold War also brought closure to several key issues still outstandingnfrom World War II, notably the reunification of Germany, it did not finishnarmed conflict in Europe. “The collapse of Yugoslavia was, to some degree,” thenauthor writes, a consequence of the termination of the division of Europe, and itnextended European conflict into the twenty-first century” (p. 243).